Manchester Metrolink - The Rochdale Branch - 6th September 2022

On Tuesday 6th September 2022, we visited Manchester Metrolink once more to video the Rochdale branch which will complete our stop by stop videos of the system.
Compared to all of the other lines, the Rochdale branch seems to be the most unloved of them all. It was difficult to find any of the stop names complete with either lettering or grey lines or spots missing off most of them and surprisingly huge amounts of litter around the stop platforms and on the trackbed at the stops.
It is a curious branch line with quite a lot of use of single line working and, more than any other line on the system, much rural running in the West Pennine Moors.
The weather was mixed and, not surprisingly, on the Moors and the towns on the edge of the Moors, including Oldham and Milnrow, there was much rain.
In my career, I worked in Oldham for some time, so rain was not unexpected!
As we got closer to Manchester, the weather improved.
In the afternoon, we had a look, as ever, at the City Centre and, on the way back to Piccadilly for the train actually saw 3144 and photographed it (see the slideshow). 3145 did not put in an appearance, though 3116 is now an allover advert for Sale Sharks Rugby Club and, somewhat differently to the norm, has a different advert on one side to the other. It also appears in the slideshow.
So trams photographed or in the video include:
3001 3003 3004 3012 3018 3025 3028 3033 3036 3038 3039 3040 3049 3050 3051 3053 3061 3063 3066 3067 3070 3074 3075 3077 3082 3086 3087 3094 3097 3098 3101 3104 3106 3108 3110 3113 3114 3115 3116 3117 3118 3121 3122 3124 3128 3129 3130 3132 3134 3137 3140 3141 3142 3144
What next?...... well we will be videoing in the West Midlands and will spend enough time time at West Bromwich Central to video and photograph all of the trams in service on 16th September 2022. Will new CAF Urbos 100s 46 and 47 have made it into service? How many of the CAF Urbos 3s will be running and how many will have had the full blue livery restored? We know that 37 has!
Then in October 2022, our visit to Manchester Metrolink will concentrate solely on the City Centre in an attempt to capture every tram in service on the day.
We hope that you enjoy, "like" and subscribe to these Manchester Metrolink presentations from Tuesday 6th September 2022.
Podbaba Transport. 7th September 2022.

[@michaeljohndennis2231]

I was last in Rochdale for the first time just before the lockdowns were fully implemented in 2020, having lived in Manchester since 2002 and it is a lovely town and the people are lovely - I’m very much looking forward to returning to the town again very soon and to find out how the people of Rochdale are coping with the post-Covid era, as it has gone totally nuts in my native Ireland

[@dln4089]

podbaba transport shows us someny trams along and evreyday

[@samreenhanif2542]

What to you thing of the sound